Rising Stars: Meet Kendall Chambers

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kendall Chambers.

Hi Kendall, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
When I was a child, my Mom would take us to the Hammonds House in West End to see artwork that looked like us. She would drive around the city so we could look at all the graffiti on the walls and highways. It was a culture shock for her where we were living. It was nice but still heavily embedded in racism. She was a California girl so she wasn’t used to this kind of living. Eventually, she started making art and me being the youngest staying home with her, I wanted to paint with her. We moved inside the city outside the city through the years and art came and went for me. I never looked at is something special I could do. Around 2017 we ended up being homeless for a second. With the help of my mentor I had at the time, I was able to be a provider for my family finding us a place to stay. My world got rocked again shortly after that. I was put out of school, Covid hit and My mentor passed away. The last thing he told was to come back to doing art. I was tired of running through the motions. It felt like I didn’t have the energy to do anything else then. I stopped working and dedicated those two years of Quarantine to focus solely on art. By the end, I found a new mentor Charly Palmer, had my first solo show at Mason Fine Art Gallery in Buckhead and now have four pieces in TIME.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
God got a plan. I don’t like everything in the plan but I trust Big Bruh. I don’t know how to live like an artist yet. What I know is what I lived through and what I see. Right now, the Atlanta my people live in isn’t cute or fun. I’ve lived long enough to see some of little Bruhdas be killed and see people who I looked up to be stagnant. I buried my nephew a couple of months ago. He got killed like a Grown man. He ain’t get to make it to see ten. I’m tired of losing. Art is easy, the real rough road I can’t even put in this interview.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I created my own style called KENFOLK art. it centers around Autochthonous Americans, which is the original peoples of America, lifestyle, cultures and expressions in a modern sense. In the last five-plus years, I’ve done research into my own family. I even started going by my Grandads name which is Pow Wow. When I came back to the art I wanted to reflect all what I found in the work I do. KENFOLK means family so all my pieces have family values and morals in them even if the look wild. Every piece has its story and place that represents this heritage that we practice consciously and subconsciously.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
I’ll be happy when my people straight. When my women ain’t sad and overworked. When my brothers angry and tired. I have my moments of being happy but I feel like if you in this world how we are and you say you truly happy, you crazy.

Contact Info:

• Website: Kenfolkart678.com
• Instagram: @kenfolkart
• Twitter: @kenfolkart